M. hoops faces baptism by fire

Published: Thursday, March 14, 1996

Final Four play begins with tough Princeton game

By Melissa Anderson

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

INDIANAPOLIS - Nobody said it would be easy, but when the UCLA men's basketball team was shipped to the Southeast Region and paired with Princeton in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the road back to the Final Four got even tougher.

Expecting nothing worse than the No. 4 seed in the West Region, the Pacific 10 champions watched last Sunday as the selection committee gave Arizona - which finished three full games behind the Bruins in the conference - the No. 3 seed in the West and seeded UCLA fourth in a region which includes Connecticut, Cincinnati and Georgia Tech.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the Bruins are slated to face a Tiger squad which defeated Pennsylvania in overtime to take the Ivy League title last weekend. That momentum, along with the announcement of head coach Pete Carril's retirement at the end of the season, is more than enough to put a scare into UCLA head coach Jim Harrick.

"They beat Penn and that's really, really hard to do," Harrick said. "They've got a great coach; they're fundamentally sound. You can't fall asleep or they'll pick you apart."

Princeton often looks as if it is asleep. Known for their slow tempo game, the Tigers' style of play is similar to that of Oregon State, a team which finished last in the Pac-10, but gave the Bruins a run for their money in both meetings this season because they were able to draw the normally fast-paced Bruins into a slower half-court game.

Unlike OSU, however, Princeton has been successful, and as a result, leads the nation in team defense, allowing only 51.6 points per game. And although 13th-seeded Princeton is the obvious underdog against the country's best shooting team in tonight's 7 o'clock contest at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, the Tigers aren't exactly running scared.

"(UCLA) is awfully good," Carril said. "They seem to be doing a heck of a job on defense because nobody seems to hit a high percentage of their shots against them. I'm worried about the size of the team and the shot- blocking potential and the kind of pressure they can put on - whether or not we can handle that.

"But we've always given a decent account of ourselves in the NCAA and I'm hopeful we can do that again. You try to stay in every game and if you can, then something might happen that can make you win it."

The man who has been making the Tigers win ball games is junior Sydney Johnson, a 6-foot-4-inch guard who was a first-team All-Ivy League selection. Though he is averaging just 8.8 points per game, as team captain he has taken over the leadership role on a team which starts just one senior.

"Sydney is doing a nice job for us," Carril said. "He's sort of running the team, sometimes dealing with two freshmen in the lineup and sort of making sure they know what they are doing. He directs the way we play and has hit some big shots for us this year."

If the Bruins expect to make it out of Indianapolis to a possible rematch with Connecticut in the regional semifinals next week in Lexington, Ky., they will have to make some big plays of their own. With sophomore J.R. Henderson still not fully recovered from strep throat - which kept him out of the Bruins' last two regular season games - and Kris Johnson feeling the effects of a back injury suffered against Washington State on Saturday, the Bruins are at less than full strength and could be a first-round casualty if they are not careful.

"I know Princeton is a dangerous team to play," UCLA guard Toby Bailey said. "We're not going to have a light first round. Last year, people expected us to either go far or win it all. This year, they're not (expecting) that, so it's just going to make us hungrier.

"(Being moved to the Southeast) is the kind of the inspiration we needed to make us play even harder in the tournament. The fact that we got shipped away and still don't really feel like we get the respect we deserve, that's just going to make us play harder."

ANDREW SCHOLER/Daily Bruin

A sprained back will not keep standout sixth-man Kris Johnson from being available in first-round play with Princeton tonight.

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